2007 Photo Contest Winners
Category: Nature
Shots in this category will showcase wild plants and animals in their natural environments.
First prize
IN HIS ELEMENT
Novice photographer Dale Poulter is just learning the ins and outs of nature photography. “It’s not easy to get close to some of these critters,” she says. She kayaked out on Pike Lake, near Perth, Ont., looking for a green heron; instead, she found a co-operative frog. “He stuck around for about fifteen minutes, didn’t hop away, and I got about ten pictures.”
JUDGES’ comments
We get lots of frog shots, but never ones that make them look like an Egyptian hippo god, tranquil in its duckweed aquatic carpet, ready to shake like a dog at any moment and send everything flying. Dale’s photo is a clever study in how changes of texture define changes of object (leaves, then frog, then leaves again) in a single-colour composition with spot-on focus.
Second
prize
ON THE HOOK
When Barb DiPietro’s nephew started screaming that he’d snagged a big one, she grabbed her camera. “I got down close to the dock and took some shots. By chance, the lure happened to be right on top of its head.” They released the fish into the waters around Barb’s uncle’s cottage on Tobin Island, on Lake Rosseau.
JUDGES’ comments
Barb’s shot is so lively and complex, with so much to look at: the fish’s skin patterns seemingly repeated in the highlights on the water; all the detail in the watery depths below. The light’s great, especially that little bright edge running underneath and defining the jaw. It’s electric. And, of course, we love that the lure is staring the fish right in the eye!
Third prize
LARGE AND LEGGY
Andrew Peaker has seen tons of wildlife around the dock at his parents’ Muldrew Lake cottage in Muskoka. To get this shot of a pregnant dock spider, he used a telephoto lens with a macro filter. “She was too big to fit through the cracks,” he says, “and you could even hear her moving along the dock.”
JUDGES’ comments
We couldn’t take our eyes off this gal – so weird and icky and fascinatingly huge – and were relieved to discover Andrew didn’t have to get too close. That said, his handling of the shot, emphasizing great size with a close-up viewpoint and a narrow depth of field, is just what the subject calls for. A harrowing, sculptural result.
2007 Winners in other categories
Life at the Cottage
Where friends, family, pets, and the cottage itself are the stars of the photo.
Landscapes
Includes any shot that predominantly features the land, water, or sky.
Kids Only
Images of cottage life taken by children, 15 years of age and younger.
The Funnies
And just for fun, here are some outtakes from the lighter side of cottaging.
Caption Contest
Enter before November 21 - click here.
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